Green Innovations

Developing renewable and clean technology companies in New York

Monday, April 30, 2012

Zotos, a haircare manufacturer, claims to have created the largest onsite wind project of any U.S. manufacturer. The company said the wind farm located at its plant in Geneva, NY., had helped it reach its goal of finding 100 percent of its electrical needs from renewables.

Zotos’ wind project has received the endorsement of the pro-wind lobby group the American Wind Energy Association, who said it was the largest wind project of any manufacturer in the U.S. It is also the largest private industrial wind plan in the New York State region. The project was funded in part by the 2009 federal stimulus, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The project comprises two 1,650-kilowatt (kW) wind turbines (yielding a total capacity of 3.3 megawatts), which provide power to the 670,000-square-foot manufacturing plant, which employs 760 staff.
The company, which makes haircare and styling aid products and is owned by global cosmetics giant Shiseido, said the onsite wind turbines were a first in the beauty industry.

“After years of hard work, dedication, and an unwavering commitment to sustainability, we have finally achieved a key milestone toward our vision of sustainable beauty,” Anthony Perdigao, the vice president and chief sustainability officer at Zotos said in a statement. “This is a historic moment for Zotos, our parent company, and our community. If we can do it, so can others.”

Zotos is one of number of U.S manufacturers who have begun installing on-site clean energy systems to help meet their power needs. One of the most high profile to date is Walmart, which has pledged to get all its power from renewables (though it has yet to set a date for when this will happen). Right now the retail giant has 180 renewable energy projects in operation or under development, including 100 solar power installations. According to Walmart, the company’s long-term goals include reducing its greenhouse gases at its facilities around the world by 20 percent by the end of this year.

Even so, onsite renewable energy supplied just 4 percent of Walmart’s power in 2010, and the company has a long way to go before reaching its 100 percent goal.

Zotos whose products are sold under the Zotos, JOICO, ISO, Senscience, and Bain de Terre brand names to hair salons and beauty retailers, said wind power made up just one part its green energy portfolio. It’s other efforts towards sustainability include energy-efficient lighting, reductions in water consumption, a significant increase in rail use, and the use of 100 percent recycled materials in most of its packaging. It has also pioneered the use of plant-based plastics in its bottle production.

Zotos said the wind project was expected to meet nearly 60 percent of the Geneva plant’s power needs. To make up the remaining 40 percent, the company recently entered into an agreement to purchase up to 9 million kW of green energy.
“Zotos is proud to lead the way for other manufacturers interested in sustainability,” Perdigao added. “Our future depends on it.”

LED lighting fixture maker Ephesus
developing prototype chip with Group4 Labs. Ephesus Technologies LLC of
Syracuse, NY, USA (a firm founded in June 2010 by former Lockheed Martin
employees that designs and makes LED lighting fixtures for commercial and
municipal markets) has partnered with Group4 Labs Inc of Fremont, CA
to engineer and manufacture its own prototype LED chip as it aims to become
vertically integrated.

With a manufacturing facility at the University
of Albany’s College
of Nanoscale Science and Engineering
(CNSE) Smart System Technology and Commercialization Center of Excellence (STC)
in Canandaigua, NY, Group4 Labs develops and supplies
‘extreme materials’ that aim to improve the performance of gallium nitride
(GaN)-based devices. The firm’s technology enables epitaxial GaN layers to be
atomically attached (regardless of lattice mismatch) to a free-standing,
proprietary chemical-vapor-deposited (CVD) synthetic polycrystalline diamond
substrate, providing GaN-on-diamond epiwafers.

Ephesus initially resided in Syracuse University’s
Center for Advanced Systems and Engineering (CASE Center).
The firm now has 16 staff and is based in the Syracuse
Technology Garden
(with a manufacturing location at Ansen Corp in Ogdensburg,
NY), but plans to re-locate to Baldwinsville
in Central New York as it expands.

The EG4 is reckoned to be the first LED to be completely developed and
manufactured in New York
State. Ephesus says that
development was aided by upstate New York’s research and manufacturing
strengths in the regional innovation cluster related to clean technologies and
through collaboration with upstate New York academic institutions and several
New York Centers of Excellence (CoE).

In February, Ephesus
received a $50,000 grant from the SyracuseCoE Commercialization Assistance
Program (CAP), which was established in partnership with Syracuse-based
CenterState CEO (Corporation for Economic Opportunity, formerly the
Metropolitan Development Association) and Empire State Development (ESD) with
grants received under the auspices of New York Assemblyman William Magnarelli.
The firm also received a $1m tax incentive from the ESD. STC provided support
and infrastructure to enable Group4 Labs to produce demonstration LEDs as a
first step toward the development of super-bright LEDs.

Ephesus has also benefited from the New York Energy Regional Innovation
Cluster (NYE-RIC) – a consortium led by Syracuse University in partnership with
City University of New York (CUNY), NYSTAR (New York State Office of Science,
Technology and Academic Research), and the State University of New York (SUNY)
Research Foundation. NYE-RIC’s ‘Bridge to Markets’ program – funded by
SyracuseCoE and NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development
Authority), and conducted in collaboration with CenterState CEO – connects New
York state firms that have developed innovative products for advanced buildings
with the diverse and critical stakeholders in the target market of New York
City.

Existing Ephesus LED lighting products target a broad range of applications,
including warehouses, manufacturing facilities, parking lots/garages, roadways,
stadiums, tunnels and bridges. Currently, fixtures are produced in New York State
using LED chips from third-party companies, and the LED array comprises over
47% of the cost of the entire Ephesus
lighting fixture. By developing its own LED chip, Ephesus aims to cut the cost of its LED
fixtures by 30%.

“Our EG4 LED chip will be commercialized through small-scale production and
be demonstrated and used in Ephesus
lighting fixtures,” says CEO Amy Casper. Ephesus
reckons that the EG4 will differentiate its products from other LED-based
products and allow it to capture more market share in the LED fixture market.

“This new chip can meet a rapidly growing demand for highly efficient
lighting and smart lighting technology,” reckons CenterState CEO’s president
Robert Simpson. “For our region, this will result in new jobs and investment,
and offer further evidence that our collective effort to create a strong
entrepreneurial ecosystem is paying real dividends,” he adds.

"The state’s partnership with Ephesus Technologies is a great example of
what can be accomplished through collaboration between the private-sector,
academia and government,” comments Jim Fayle, Central New
York regional director with Empire State Development. “The success
of this home-grown small business will create much-needed jobs and generate
significant economic activity for Upstate New York,” he adds.

Winner of the North American Sustainable Enterprise Award

Green Innovation Starts Here

About the Clean Tech Center

The Clean Tech Center is a NYSERDA-funded clean energy incubator that accelerates the development of world-class companies in sectors such as renewable energy, alternative fuels, system integration and the smart grid, advanced battery and energy storage technologies, and smart green building technologies.

The Clean Tech Center provides technical assistance to entrepreneurs and early stage companies through a focused approach that includes business plan and strategy development, proof of concept, tech commercialization, and go-to-market funding strategies.

Sponsors

The Clean Tech Center, located at The Tech Garden, is supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).